Quidditch, the favorite pastime of wizards and witches in J.K. Rowling's best-selling Harry Potter novels, has recently come to life on Berkeley's Memorial Glade field. Charlie Strauss, a 22-year-old junior psychology major, held Quidditch team tryouts in February after seeing a collegiate game played at Vassar College in New York.

"Basically, what we do is sort of a combination of rugby, football, dodgeball and tag. ... But it's really just Quidditch," said Strauss, who donned a Harry Potter-esque white button-down shirt, red tie and gray V-neck sweater. Strauss is the self-proclaimed Quidditch commissioner and describes his clothing as his commissioner outfit.

Cal joins more than 200 colleges and universities across the country with teams playing this wizardly sport. In the Bay Area, UC Davis has an active team, and students from Cal's big rival, Stanford University, have registered with the Intercollegiate Quidditch Association, saying they're interested in forming a team.

In the Harry Potter books, players soar on broomsticks and score goals by throwing balls through hoops high above the field. To end the Quidditch match, a player must capture a golden, flying ball - the snitch.

In the real-life version, visionary teams have made some creative adjustments to the game.

"There's slightly less flying," Strauss laughed. "We just run around. We have to have brooms between our legs at all times. We have balls and try to make goals in our hoops, and eventually the game will be over when somebody catches the snitch."

Hula hoop goals

Hula hoops hung from tree branches are the goals; the brooms are standard straw versions. The red and blue balls (bludgers and quaffles) are from the toy aisle. And the most creative modification of all: The snitch is a distance runner clad in a yellow shirt, gold leggings and a sweatband. To catch him, players must steal the tennis ball tucked into a tube sock that dangles from his waistband.

The Quidditch positions rotate among team members, but Sean Robbins, a freshman psychology student who competed in track and cross-country in high school, often finds himself in the role of snitch. He even created a golden outfit for his position, complete with shiny gold leggings.

"At tryouts, they asked who wanted to be the snitch and who had any running background," Robbins said. "A couple people did, but I ended up doing it. I intended to keep up with running here at Berkeley but just didn't make it a priority once I got here. So being the snitch is great because I get to be active, run and have tons of fun."

Vermont's Middlebury College is credited with forming the first Quidditch team in 2005, and now the school hosts the annual Quidditch World Cup. Middlebury students formed the Intercollegiate Quidditch Association and created an official rulebook that Strauss used when forming his team.

Finding the players

"I've always been a huge Harry Potter fan," Strauss said. "I ordered the books from England when they first came out. I've thought about forming a team at Cal for a while, and ... one day, on a whim, we just started handing out flyers for team tryouts."

"There were all sorts of people handing out flyers for things on Sproul Plaza," said Katie Bentivoglio, a freshman political science student and a chaser on the Quidditch team. "But I heard some people yelling 'Quidditch! Quidditch!' and I ran over there. I was like 'I've got to have that flyer.' "

Strauss said he and his co-captain, sophomore Hana Kwon, expected a dozen people to show up for tryouts in February, but they were shocked when more than 40 people arrived. Passers-by stopped to take photos.

Quidditch games still draw gawkers. During a recent Saturday practice, three Cal engineering grad students passed by Memorial Glade. They paused, first with quizzical looks on their faces and then a spark of recognition followed by a burst of laughter.

"I'm amazed with what they're doing," said Lea Grausz, a graduate student in civil engineering. "It's so creative. But I guess that's really the Cal culture. I'd think about playing."

"I'm the announcer, the ref and the coach at the moment," Strauss said. "It's a huge amount of work. But people are really enthusiastic."

They may not fly, but a group of students are hoping the Harry Potter sport quidditch takes off at U.C. Berkeley.

Media: San Francisco Chronicle

Magical bake sale

During the school year, the team plays pickup games on Thursdays and Saturdays, regularly attracting about 10 players. The Quidditch off-season lasts from May until August, when brooms are grounded during final exams and team members leave campus for the summer.

Currently, the team doesn't receive any funding from the university, so they've talked about having a Quidditch-themed bake sale to raise money and recruit new players. They plan to serve butter beer, a nonalcoholic beverage from the Harry Potter novels, and doughnut holes with toothpick wings that look like the snitches.

When the team does get funding, "we'd like to buy some used volleyballs because they're easier to pick up with one hand than the balls we're playing with now," Strauss said. "And maybe the nice wooden broomsticks they use for intercollegiate play. You can buy them for $60 online."

In the meantime, team members hope their version of Quidditch will take off when Berkeley classes start again next fall.

"Cal's a pretty high-stress school, so it's fun to just let off some steam and do something silly," Bentivoglio said. "Plus, when your friends ask 'Hey, where are you going?' and they're off to a four-hour lab, you can say, 'I'm off to Quidditch practice.' "

Rules of Quidditch

1 Instead of flying on broomsticks, muggle players must hold broomsticks between their legs while running on the field.

3 Players throw bludgers (red balls) at one another. If hit by a bludger, a player must drop whatever ball he is carrying and run back to his own goal hoops. Another player can then pick up the ball he dropped.

4 Instead of a golden flying ball, the snitch is a person dressed in gold who runs around the Quidditch field. A sock with a tennis ball in it is tucked into the snitch's waistband.

5 The game ends when a player catches the snitch by grabbing the sock. Catching the snitch is worth 30 points.

To watch a video of the UC Berkeley Quidditch team in action go to sfgate.com/ZJRG.